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NH-L9 — a new compact CPU cooler from Noctua

Noctua, the famous Austrian manufacturer of quiet PC cooling solutions, has announced the expansion of their product range by releasing a new compact low-profile CPU cooler. The new CPU cooler is called Noctua NH-L9 and is essentially a shrunken-down, even more compact version of the Noctua NH-L12, which was just released earlier this year, yet still managed to achieve significant popularity. According to Noctua, the new Noctua NH-L9 was designed in response to success of the Noctua NH-L12 and requests of enthusiasts, which wanted an even more compact CPU cooler, primarily to use in mini-ITX systems.

While the previous Noctua NH-L12 cooler was, depending on installed fans, either 91 or 66 mm tall, which was already rather compact, the new Noctua NH-L9 cooler shows even more impressive results, regarding to dimensions, measuring at only 37 mm tall. The new CPU cooler will be available in two different versions called Noctua NH-L9i and Noctua NH-L9a, which are designed for Intel and AMD CPUs, respectively. Featuring Noctua’s SecuFirm2 mounts, the new coolers can be easily and reliably installed on the following CPU sockets: AMD FM1/FM2/AM3+ (NH-L9a) and Intel LGA 1150/1155/1156 (NH-L9i). The main reason for creating two separate versions of the new CPU cooler was to more accurately fit into specifications of the near-socket area of both platforms, without interfering with RAM or the video cards. Because of this, different versions of Noctua’s NH-L9 CPU cooler also have slightly different dimensions: 95 x 95 mm for NH-L9i and 92 x 114 mm for NH-L9a.

Three quarter view of Noctua NH-L9i

Side view of Noctua NH-L9i

Package contents of Noctua NH-L9i

One of the design decisions, which made the 37 mm height possible was the use of a 92 mm Noctua NF-A9x14 fan, which is a part of Noctua’s new series of fans, which will talk about in one of the following news posts. This particular fan is only 14 mm thick, while other 23 mm of heigh come from the heatsink itself. Noctua’s new NF-A9x14 fan supports PWM control of speed and also comes bundled with Noctua’s Low-Noise Adaptor (L.N.A.), which can manually limit the maximum rotational speed of this fan at 1800 RPM, instead of the standard 2500 RPM.

Three quarter view of Noctua NH-L9a

Side view of Noctua NH-L9a

Package contents of Noctua NH-L9a

As with all Noctua’s coolers, the new Noctua NH-L9 CPU cooler comes bundled with Noctua’s high-performance NT-H1 thermal paste. Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of the new CPU cooler is set at $47.9 or €39.9, depending on the region. If you are interested in Noctua’s new NH-L9 coolers, than you get more details on them by visiting the webpages of NH-L9i and NH-L9a coolers on Noctua’s official website.